Mysticism is mysterious, as is the word mystical. Mysticism and mystical are spiritual terms with positive and negative connotations pertaining to an individual’s direct communication with God or ultimate reality. There are mystics in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Mystics are also found in other world religions. Mysticism is generally positive when a mystic discovers or enters relationship with God expanding their understanding of God beyond what is apparent to the senses, or strictly intellectual. It can be negative when used in a cult, incorporating secret rites, claims of superiority, or abuses authority to control others.
Ursula King, author of Christian Mystics: Their Lives and Legacies Throughout the Ages, defines a “mystic” as “a person who is deeply aware of the powerful presence of divine Spirit: someone who seeks, above all, the knowledge and love of God and who experiences to an extraordinary degree the profoundly personal encounter with the energy of divine life.”
A graduate student at the University of Toronto, Gustave Ineza, wrote A Critical consideration of contributions of mysticism to the Christian-Muslim Dialogue. He shares how Western scholars fascinated by the Sufi mystical tradition in Islam seek a common ground for spiritual dialogue with Islam while remaining faithful to their own religious tradition and their faith.
Many people know of Thomas Merton’s interest in Buddhist and Taoist spirituality. Ineza quotes Merton’s letters to people from different social, political, and religious backgrounds in The Hidden Ground of Love. The book includes Merton’s dialog on mysticism with Abdul Aziz, a Muslim from Karachi. Their correspondence reveals a Christian-Muslim dialogue on the spiritual level. The two men shared on their methods of meditation and prayer, spiritual experiences, theological insights, and practical ways to live that dialogue.
Meister Eckhart perhaps summed up mysticism’s appeal to many people in this quote attributed to him. “Theologians may quarrel, but the mystics of the world speak the same language.”